Chattanooga police searching creek for 2 children

Chattanooga police searching creek for 2 children

A rescue boat sits ready near the Cromwell Hills Apartments were Chattanooga police and rescuers are mounting a search for two missing children who are feared missing in South Chickamauga Creek.

A rescue boat sits ready near the Cromwell...

Photo by
Laura-Chase McGehee
/Times Free Press.

Police divers were searching South Chickamauga Creek tonight for two 11-year-old boys who went in swimming and didn't come out.

Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd said 60 officers are searching along the creek's banks and checking buildings as darkness fell and the divers had to drop their search for Kentory Ray and Thomas Ruffin.

The boys, who live at the Cromwell Hills Apartments, went swimming with two others this afternoon. Two boys stayed on the bank but Kentory and Thomas went in the water. They were last seen floating south on the creek, Dodd said.

He said all the apartments in the Chattanooga Housing Authority complex have been checked but officers are looking in other structures close to the creek.

Police have set up a command center near the apartment complex and Dodd said the search will continue into the night.

Dodd asked anyone who sees the boys or has any information useful to the search to call 911.